This certainly wasn’t the way I had thought the invasion would go, nor had we ever rehearsed it in this manner." But he was moving out to accomplish the mission. Throughout the Cotentin Peninsula, small unit leaders from both divisions were doing the same.This was the payoff for hard training and leaders who valued soldiers, communicated the importance of the mission, and trusted their subordinate leaders to accomplish it. As they trained their commands for the invasion, organizational leaders focused downward as well as upward. They took care of their soldiers’ needs while providing the most realistic training possible. This freed their subordinate leaders to focus upward as well as downward. Because they knew their units were well trained and their leaders would do everything in their power to support them, small unit leaders were able to focus on the force’s overall mission. They knew and understood the commander’s intent. They believed that if they exercised disciplined initiative within that intent, things would turn out right . Events proved them correct....
